Han Jian cupped his chin and let out a thoughtful hum. "I see, yeah I suppose that would be in my families wheelhouse huh? Surprised your boss isn't going through the Guo though."
"They've been silent, and not showing much interest, would you have any insights?" Ling Qi asked.
Han Jian considered her. "I've heard that there's something in the eastern wastes that has Grandfather Fortress and the Guo Patriarch occupied. Enough so for the Ancestor to leave his yearly route."
"Sands shift, winds shift, rise and fall, the heart of the waste remain. The Ashes are stirring," the black tigress said, licking her paw.
"That would match what I've been hearing," Ling Qi said slowly. She did still trade letters with XIulan even if they'd been growing more sporadic as her friend got busier as well. Her Father had taken her out on a minor campaign, but apparently the scope had been expanded. According to the last letter, her father had been meeting with some other lords to combine their efforts.
So thats another hotspot starting to boil over. A major one, if the Guo are moving Grandfather Fortress, as their seat of power and biggest strategic reserve there.
"Gu Xiulan huh?" Han Jian chuckled. "Surprised you even need to ask me."
"Xiulan's perspective is a bit too close to the ground right now, and we both know she gets bored with politics," Ling Qi said, smiling wanly.
"Yeah," Han Jian said with a sigh. "Is she…"
"I think she's happy," Ling Qi said simply.
He let out a breath through his nose. "...That'll do.
He really is a good guy, considering how spicy the break got, he still cares.
Probably why she fell for him to begin with.
Anyway. I can send a request up through my clan, see if that's something we might do. I give it decent odds the clan craftsmen will be interested enough to want a chance to chat."
"Not every day one gets to speak with an entirely different lineage of geomantic study, huh?"
Han Fang raised an eyebrow at her. Han Jian was more polite.
"...I have been studying some basics. I'll have an experienced teacher arriving at our fief soon after the summit. I don't want to make him waste time on things I can learn myself," Ling Qi said, crossing her arms and lifting her chin challengingly.
"Yeah, Big Sis, is hitting the books hard!" Hanyi piped up from over her shoulder, where she had remained silent while they spoke formally.
"Sorry, sorry, you're right though," Han Jian said, lifting his hands as if to ward off her ire. "That's what I'm thinking. Someone will at least want to have a chat and size up the other guy. Craftmasters are a lot like roosters that way."
"Puffing themselves up and strutting in circles, plumage on display?" Ling Qi said dryly. "How disrespectful, Han Jian."
No shit, they'd love it.
Both for the learning opportunity of approaching similar problems from different perspectives, and also oneupmanship in demonstrating that their traditional way is better.
She brushed his cultivation with her senses. Felt the wind screaming through the dry grass, whirling in the sands, a cutting blade, though she couldn't see its aim from a polite glance. She dipped her head. "I'm glad. I've… found purpose, unsnarled some things. I too think I know where i am going now, or at least the direction of it."
Sword Dao?
Curious, and not exactly expected since he was last seen adding the four Argents to his cultivation, but you can see elements of a desert storm comprising the blade.
Heijin said, ears flicking. "Cold one, what are you delaying for, your permission to pet me has never been rescinded."
"Ah, is that so," Ling Qi said, crouching at the tigers side, she reached up, scratching behind his ears, and received a rumbling purr in return.
"Sis, you shouldn't indulge stuffy guys like that. They're the ones who should coming to you," Hanyi said, finally dropping off her back.
"The young miss is wise," Sidao said, not looking up from her paw.
Heijin lifted his nose into the air and declined to respond to either.
A big cat is still a cat.
Han Jian dropped back down into a seated position, his elbows resting against the tigers side. "Still can't really believe all the stories about what you've gotten up to."
"They're probably only… half true," Ling Qi said.
"You hesitated there a second."
"There are some fairly silly rumors around," Ling Qi said.
The serious ones are probably the wrong ones.
Han Fang gestured to her. She frowned.
"...No that one is true. But it sounds a little exaggerated?" She'd hardly carried a whole battalion out of the caldera with her mist. "I only parried the enemy's parting blow."
...Ling Qi, they didn't get it wrong, they
mixed up two stories lol.
They confused the Underground Teleport Evacuation with the Caldera bomb parry.
Probably because parrying a 7th stage Green sacrificial attack was more improbable than spiriting allies away, and the witnesses couldn't see shit, what with the protective mist.
Ling Qi said, observing as Hanyi put her hands on her hips and stuck out her tongue at Heijin, the two spirits bickering. She dug her fingers in behind the big cats ears and turned the angry rumble into a purr.
Expert Brat Wrangler.
"You've got a couple projects that you could spend a mortal lifetime or two on, by the sounds of it," Han Jian said. "Me, I gotta sit back and wait for my father to approve deployment."
"You requested that?" Ling Qi said, surprised.
Han Fang looked like he'd bitten a lemon.
"I need experiences and merits to bring home," Han Jian said thoughtfully. "And… there's some interest in what the Han have to offer. It's not just you. Better ties with the Emerald Seas, is important right now, I think."
Ambition huh.
The blade needs to be honed, after it is forged.
Ling Qi considered. The Han family were the experts who had built the system of geomantic oasis' that made the recovery of the Golden Fields more than a dream. They would be experienced with the spread of corruptive and insidious energies.
It occurs to me the whole Han-Guo mess may well be boiled down to a money problem.
If the Han are of strategic importance to securing Golden Fields, then the more powerful they get, the more expensive their services would be, even if they can provide more and better oasis.
...also probably good consultants for hot springs. Similar principles.
"...It's not fun," she said. Looking up. "It's not fun at all, down in the dark, or under a hostile sky. Don't go into it thinking of merits."
"Survival, Victory, Glory. In that order," Han Jian chuckled. "Sounds about like the advice my Father's been giving."
That was a good, pithy way of putting it. "Most would probably say victory first."
"The Golden Fields learned better. A Victory that costs too much is just a pretty defeat," Han Jian said, shaking his head.
That does not sound like a popular opinion in much of the Empire, does it?
"Ah, but we're getting off into serious stuff again. Didja know I've got a match in the works?"
"Really? The fields does things way too soon," Ling Qi said. You'd think explosive fallout like her Xiulan and Fan Yu's arrangement would happen enough to ward it off.
On the other hand, of all the provinces, The Golden Fields would be inclined to make fruitful matches early. They had spent a long time in strife.
Yeah, have your heirs young, because there is no guarantee of a Later.
Hmm, probably makes them more tolerant of youthful shenanigans that result from such things blowing up.
"You're not wrong. We're just exchanging letters, but she is Half Guo, so it'd be a good alliance," Han Jian shrugged. "Dunno she seems nice enough but I feel way over my head…"
"I can sympathize, I've only just started thinking seriously about that kind of thing," Ling Qi sighed. "Half Guo?"
He grimaced. "Zheng bein irresponsible."
"Oh," Ling Qi said. So, born out of marriage. That still didn't sit well with her. A person should take responsibility.
She's probably going to have to deal with a whole bunch of turtle eggs later.
"Did you have fun with Heijin?" Ling Qi asked her little sister absently.
"Ugh, he was annoying the whole time," Hanyi sniffed.
"So you had fun," Ling Qi said knowingly. Hanyi harrumphed and turned her nose up.
Look at her junior sister go, pretending she hadn't enjoyed needling the haughty tiger to the edge of distraction.
"Zhengui could beat him up," Hanyi said.
Ling Qi blinked at the non sequitur. "...I suppose. What does that have to do with anything."
"Just saying, I can do better."
Ling Qi furrowed her brows at Hanyi, who smiled angelically.
"No," Ling Qi said. Whatever that was. She wanted no part of it.
Fertility god and beauty goddess.
Not that the signs weren't obvious from way back.
"Hehe, I got you to make the same frowny face the boss lady makes!" Hanyi laughed.
Ling Qi smiled, wrapped her arm around Hanyi's shoulder, and dug her knuckles into the little brats scalp.
"H-hey. Sis, Big Sis, you can't just do that!" Hanyi whined, batting at her hand as she thoroughly mussed her Junior Sisters hair. She didn't even care that they were still in the square, being stared at by aghast disciples.
"I can and I will," Ling Qi replied, letting her go. Hanyi sprang away, scowling at her holding her hands over her head, like she expected Ling Qi to strike again. "Now be good, we have other places to be."
Ah, the noogie.
The disciples are shocked speechless.
Maybe some of them might find insight in this.
[X] They were going to the medicine hall, the visit Li Suyin, and Elder Su, her one time teacher in the Outer Sect.
Its been a long time since we saw Elder Su, though we've had more with her spirit.
Was nice winning prizes in her class.
